Accessorizing Your Meal: The Butternut Squash Experiment

Cooking is a lot like getting ready for a big event; say a wedding or your high school reunion.  Most of us will spend hours thinking about what we want to wear, skimming magazines to get ideas about what to wear, try on an endless array of possibilities, and finally "settle" on something that you are not 100% sure about, but you're more sure about than the other 499 rejects.

I love to shop, but I'm a terrible shopper.  I get tunnel vision and focus on the main outfit; often failing to remember that I may not have shoes or jewelry to complete the look.  If I'm lucky, I realize this no later than the day before an event and can make a mad dash to the mall.  If I'm super-lucky, I happen to have a pair of black shoes that will "work".

For example, in 2006 we went to North Dakota for Grant's brother's wedding.  I packed a black dress that I'd owned for a few years (because it "worked"), black shoes, and a "Y" necklace that was fashionable five years earlier.  After stewing about it over the 22-hour drive to North Dakota, I was feeling very self-conscious about my outfit.  We had only been married a few years, and I had not spent much time with Grant's family, so I didn't want to be the squat, unfashionable little weirdo in the family pictures.  It didn't help matters that my then-future sister-in-law is a tall and leggy gal (not her fault that I have hang-ups).  So even though we arrived in North Dakota a mere two days before the wedding, I was determined to level up.  

The day before the wedding, we did some "sightseeing" around Fargo (yes, the same Fargo as the movie).  On this tour, we went to Scheels; a very large sporting goods store that sold everything from hunting gear to chocolate fudge.  It also had a large indoor Ferris wheel that I thought was kind of fun (I'm easily entertained).  Anyhoo, somewhere between the rifles and the fudge, they sold dressy-dresses.  Talk about one-stop shopping!!  Take notes, Costco!  I found a dress in black and cream -- so, totally different than the dress I packed -- and decided that this was a much better choice.  

The next day, the day of the wedding, I realized that I had overlooked a small but important detail about my new dream dress (which, by the way, it wasn't).  The dress I bought had spaghetti straps, requiring a specific type of, um, undergarment that wouldn't show, um, certain parts of said undergarment when worn.  Thankfully, we still had a few hours before the wedding and ran to the mall where I frantically ran to JC Penney and bought the aforementioned undergarment as well as a traditional circular-shaped necklace, and an evening bag.  I was going to be classy, dammit!!!

Even after all that trouble, I can't say I was happy with the results...at all.  I still think I look like a pasty troll in the family picture.  We have this photo in our living room and it mocks me daily from its lofty perch.  I'm using it as motivation to obsess over what I will wear to my stepdaughter's wedding seven months away!  Maybe I'll invest in some bronzer...And just because I'm a glutton for punishment, I will share a horribly fuzzy photo of the look-that-failed.

When you're as short as I am, why would you choose

something that looks like a maternity dress?

Anyway, it hit me the other day that this is the same approach I've taken with cooking and meal-planning.  I spend a decent amount of time making thoughtful decisions about what to cook for the week, take conscientious steps to cook ahead so we're not scrambling for dinner after work, only to realize I've neglected selecting side dishes to complete the meal. 

This week, I/we have made an effort to plan every aspect of dinner, including the sides.  This could be something as easy as grilling a bunch of asparagus, or cooking snow peas in a microwave steamer (if you don't have one, get one, they're a big time saver).  If you want to be a little more ambitious, you can try the dish that I just made this week, Velvety Butternut Squash from Melissa Joulwan's Well Fed. 

A few disclaimers; this is not a difficult dish, but it is time consuming.  Do not make this if you need something at the last minute; do not make this if you need to cook something before running off to pick up the kids from school; do not make this if you are having dinner with people you are not 100% comfortable with (you'll see why in a minute).

But before we can even get to making this dish, we have to whip up a spice blend.  I will say that this has become a bit of a pet peeve of mine.  I don't appreciate recipes within recipes (I'm looking at you 3 Ingredients or Less cookbook; you feckin' liar).  I also don't appreciate cookbooks that assume you have endless containers and cupboard space to store all your new and fabulous spice blends.  In Well Fed there aren't a lot of separate spice recipes, but I do appreciate that Melissa Joulwan gives her readers additional recommendations for use.  For this recipe you will need to make "Ral el Hanout", from the Well Fed cookbook.  

Combine the following ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and mix with a fork until well-combined.  You only need 2 teaspoons of the mixture for the butternut squash, so I put the remainder in a labelled Ziploc bag.  The leftovers can be used as a rub for steaks, chops, and chicken, or add to ground meat for burgers or meatballs.

2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons powdered ginger
2 teaspoons ground pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

"Raw" ingredients.

All blended together.

For Velvety Butternut Squash, preheat the oven to 350F and assemble the following ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds butternut squash
2 tablespoons water
1 head of garlic (yes, an entire head of garlic)
1 tablespoon coconut oil
2 tablespoons coconut milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons Ras el Hanout
1 egg
1/4 cup chopped pecans (save a few whole for garnish)

Step 1:  Cut the squash in half, lengthwise and remove the guts.  If the stem gets in the way, cut off the very top of the squash to create a better starting point.  

Be sure to use a sharp knife.  It takes a little finesse and patience to split the squash down the middle, but a dull knife will make it more difficult and no one wants a kitchen accident.

Place a piece of parchment paper (something I've never had in my kitchen before) on a cookie sheet and place the squash halves cut-side down.  Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of water around the squash.  [From previous experience with spaghetti squash, I would recommend checking on the butternut squash every now and then and add a little more water as needed.]

Step 2:  Take one whole head of garlic and remove as much of the loose skin as possible.  Wrap in a piece of aluminum foil.  

Upper row: new head of garlic, garlic with papery skin removed

Lower row: foil-wrapped garlic, yummy roasted garlic

Place the squash and garlic in the oven and bake for 40-50 minutes until the squash is tender.  Take both out of the oven and let cool for about 20 minutes.  

See the dent on the right one?  I think that translates as tender.

Step 3:  Increase the oven temperature to 400F.

Step 4:  Use a large spoon to scrape the flesh into a food processor (something else I didn't have in my kitchen until just a few weeks ago).  Remove the remaining skin from the garlic cloves and add all of it to the food processor (told you it's not the best dish to eat with strangers).  Puree until smooth.

Add the coconut oil, coconut milk, salt, and Ras el Hanout to the food processor and mix well.  This is the point where you want to taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning; after this you add raw egg and probably don't want to risk a trip to the hospital (I mean, it's not cookie dough, it's not worth it).

A quick word about coconut oil.  Under the Whole30 guidelines I cannot eat or cook with seed oils, such as canola oil.  Most paleo recipes will substitute traditional cooking fats with coconut oil.  My friend Bethany had told me about coconut oil over a year ago, but I never imagined I would be using it so much.  It can be expensive though, with a small jar from Whole Foods costing about $6.  To save money (by ounce) we buy a big mother-flippin' jug of coconut oil from Costco:

For scale reference, that's a tablespoon on top.

Coconut oil can replace most cooking fats (even in non-paleo recipes) in a 1:1 ratio.  It has a pleasant, mild, coconut scent, and doesn't generally add any particular coconut-y flavors to recipes.  The consistency reminds me of grainy vegetable shortening.

One tablespoon of coconut oil.

Step 5:  Scrape the squash mixture into a mixing bowl.  Beat one egg in a separate bowl and stir into the squash with a wooden spoon (the books says to use a wooden spoon, I don't know why).

Step 6:  Grease a 3-cup casserole dish with more coconut oil and pour in the squash mixture.  Top with chopped pecans (and a few whole pecans for presentation) and bake 25-30 minutes until the edges are bubbly and the top is golden brown.

Before the oven.

After the oven. The photograph doesn't look terribly different, 

but it has a much firmer consistency.

The recipe includes variations to make it into a soup, or to use different squashes, pumpkin, sweet potatoes or yams (hmmm...Thanksgiving anyone?).

Our Velvety Butternut Squash was served with Lemon & Artichoke Chicken from Diane Sanfilippo's Practical Paleo.

And the final verdict?  Pretty good!  Because it uses butternut squash, I expected it to come out a little sweeter.  The garlic gives the dish a savory quality that was a nice balance to the acidity in the chicken's lemon sauce.  Now, I love garlic (like, I love it a lot), but next time I am going to be more cognizant of how much garlic is added to the dish.  It was borderline too much; you don't want garlic to be the sole note.  Next time, I'll either use a smaller head of garlic or add it in gradually and do more taste testing.  I did taste the mixture before adding the egg, and the garlic was definitely less pronounced before it was baked, so that's something else I'll need to note on the recipe; **Warning** the garlic in this dish may be stronger than it "appears".

Mange!

Kimmy

The Breakfast Experiment

I have never been one of those people that can skip breakfast.  No breakfast equals a Kimmy (yes, we're going third person) so grouchy, that Bigfoot and Chupacabra would be lucky to make it out alive if they crossed me before I ate.  I can also eat just about anything for breakfast, just like my dad.  Growing up, leftovers were left in the fridge at your own risk because Dad might get up early (the only morning person in our family) and eat what you were saving for lunch or dinner.  Goodbye leftover steak, leftover burrito, leftover mu shu pork!  Sorry, I know most of you don't have the stomach for that before noon, but that was my world; eat or let someone else eat your goods.

Once I moved out on my own, the instinct to protect my cache of food like a hungry squirrel diminished, and I have resumed what you might call a "traditional" breakfast diet.  Breakfast is, hands-down, my favorite meal of the day.  The weekdays are a bit frantic, but there is nothing I enjoy more, or find more comforting, than having a conversation over breakfast and catching up with someone over a plate of eggs, hash-browns, and sourdough toast with a piping hot cup of Joe.  Obviously with the paleo diet, the hash-browns and toast are a no-no, but that doesn't mean I will never eat them again; it just means I won't be enjoying them as often as I used to (which, based on the doctor's evil-scale-of-doom, was a little too often).

Before taking on more culinary responsibilities at home, attempts to cook my own eggs were a disaster!!!  First, I was afraid to use butter because I'd always been taught that butter was the devil, so I'd use cooking spray.  Second, I was scared to death of contracting salmonella, so I would cook the eggs on high heat.  These were big mistakes that resulted in tasteless eggs that were rubbery in the middle with translucent "egg crisp" on the edges.  Blech, blech, and blech, again!  *Ptooey!* No amount of seasoning could rescue those poor bastards.

During the week, I have virtually no time to make breakfast so everything has to be "to go".  Prior to going paleo, breakfast was a plain bagel with gobs of peanut butter and Nutella.  Between the refined white flour, the peanut butter, and sugar in the Nutella, I have since realized this was not the healthiest choice of breakfast, even though (as I rationalized) it wasn't a cinnamon roll, danish, or Costco-sized muffin.

When we switched to paleo, I had to solve the dilemma of having a quick breakfast on-hand that we'd both be willing to eat during the week, and a delicious breakfast on the weekend that wouldn't leave me craving hash browns and toast!  Enter "Paleo Pumpkin Muffins" and what I have simply called "My Breakast".  This post is a little longer than the others I've done since there are two recipes, so please bear with me.

The Paleo Pumpkin Muffins recipe hails from www.paleoplan.com; which has a lot of wonderful, free, recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, sides and dessert.  They also offer a subscription service where they send out a weekly menu, complete with shopping list.  I signed up for the free trial period, but ended up canceling after a week when I quickly realized that while I don't mind following a recipe, I don't like being told what to eat in a particular week.  However, if you are struggling for inspiration and need a little help, it may be a worthwhile investment.  The recipes don't strictly follow the Whole30 guidelines we are trying to follow (and admittedly, diverge from when there isn't a better alternative and it's an acceptable risk), but their recipes page has an easy-to-follow layout and is a great resource for quick meal ideas.

To make your own Paleo Pumpkin Muffins, preheat the oven to 350F and assemble the following ingredients:

- 1 1/2 cups almond flour (which you can find with the bulk foods)
- 3/4 cup canned pumpkin
- 3 large eggs (not pictured)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/8 tsp sea salt (or salt, if that's what you have)
- 1/4 cup raw honey (optional)
- 2 tsp almond butter

1 recipe = 12 regular-sized muffins

A few comments regarding the ingredients:

Honey - The raw honey is not Whole30 approved because it is treated the same as any other added sugar (including artificial sweeteners).  However, without the honey, I'm not sure how much flavor the muffins would have and after breaking it down we're talking about 1 tsp of honey per muffin.  Plus, I started making these early on in our switch to paleo and we've both lost weight so I'm not too concerned about it as we haven't been consuming any added sugar outside of this concession.

Canned Pumpkin - I've made these muffins with both Whole Foods 365-brand of organic canned pumpkin and Farmer's Market brand of organic canned pumpkin (this is what I use; if you don't want to use organic the recipe doesn't specify you have to).  The Whole Foods brand has a very gooey consistency and looks a bit like baby food.  The Farmer's Market brand reminds me of canned cranberry sauce that keeps the ridges from the can.  It's a much firmer product and produces more "muffin-like" muffins.  The other pumpkin tastes fine, but the muffins tend to come out a little squishier.

Almond Butter - In the last month I have learned to read labels, read labels, and read labels.  A lot of foods, including those you might find at granola-y markets like Whole Foods or PCC Market, sneak in extra ingredients for preservation or flavor that I don't want or need.  I read the ingredients list of every brand of almond butter at Whole Foods to find the only one whose single ingredient was "Dry Roasted Almonds".  Every other jar had added sugar (and I'm already adding honey) or seed-based oils that are high in polyunsaturated fat like canola oil, sunflower oil, sesame oil, safflower oil, etc.

Wonder Cup - Okay, not an ingredient, but worth a mention.  I first learned about the Wonder Cup in 7th Grade home economics.  They are a magical, almost unicorn-like, measuring device that allows you to measure sticky ingredients (like honey).  There is a base and an outer sleeve with different types of measurements (cups, ounces, tablespoons, etc.).  You move the outer cylinder to the desired measurement and fill the cup to the brim.  Once it's full, just push up the base and scrape the contents into the bowl.  No scraping out a traditional measuring cup and losing some of your ingredients.

These muffins are so easy...

Step 1 - Combine all ingredients in a large bowl.  Seriously, just dump it all in there.  If using raw honey (versus regular honey), I highly, highly recommend warming it up a little bit before measuring it out.  You don't want it completely melted; just soft enough so you can scoop it easily and incorporate it into the batter.

(see the ridges?)

Step 2 - Prepare your muffin tin.  If you use paper liners, add 1/2 tsp of melted coconut oil to the batter.  Otherwise, grease the muffin tins liberally with coconut oil.  If you don't care about the kind of oil you use, spray the heck out of them with cooking spray.

Step 3 - Divide the batter into the muffin tin.  The recipe is freakishly true to size, so one recipe makes 12 regular-sized muffins.

Step 4 - Pop into the oven and bake for 25 minutes.  Do the toothpick check if you're not sure they're done.

Step 5 - Let muffins cool and remove from pan.  If you didn't use paper liners, running a wooden toothpick around the edges can be helpful in getting them to come out of the pan cleanly.

Store the muffins in an airtight container.  They will keep for about a week and you will know very quickly if they have spoiled.  We almost have making these muffins down to a science.  I know I need to make a double-batch because we go through 4 muffins a day (2 apiece) for breakfast.  I make them Sunday night, and if we don't eat them all by the 6th day (4 x 6 = 24) they magically go through muffin meltdown and start growing a penicillin-like substance.

With that lovely visual, I will insist they are quite tasty and have been an easy, delicious, ready-to-go breakfast.  They're a little denser than a traditional muffin, and definitely not as sweet, even with the honey.  Don't expect them to taste like a pumpkin or bran muffin from your local coffee shop.  In the morning, I don't add anything to them other than a cup of coffee, but I'm sure they'd be delightful with a smear of butter.

With the week firmly behind us and the glorious weekend before us, here is how I make "My Breakfast".  You will need...

- eggs (the Whole30 rule of thumb for how many eggs to eat is as the number of whole eggs you can hold in one hand, which for me is still only 2)

- ghee/clarified butter

- 1 slice of ham (about the size of your hand, big enough to make a good bed for your eggs)

- sliced avocado

Step 1: Set a frying pan over medium heat and melt a teaspoon or so of ghee or clarified butter; enough to give the eggs a good place to sit.  I'm not even going to suggest using regular butter here because ghee is just full of deliciousness and I have become a little addicted to it.  You can find it at Whole Foods, Central Market, PCC Market, etc. in the dairy section with the regular butter.  Plus, there's a cute little cow on the jar...

Step 2: Once the butter has melted, crack the eggs into the pan.  If the pan and butter are too hot, turn the heat down a little bit.  Cook the eggs until the the whites have cooked through (when there isn't much "jiggle" up top).  With a large spatula, flip the eggs, being careful not to crack the yolks.

Step 3:  Heat up the ham.  I heat mine for about 30 seconds in the microwave.  If you don't want to use a microwave, heat it up ahead of time so you're eggs don't go cold after they're cooked.

Step 4:  Once the ham is warm, take the eggs out of the pan and layer them on top.  I love the yolks of my eggs to be warm and not cooked through, but not runny. Letting them mostly cook before flipping them over gives them a lovely creamy consistency.  As I mentioned in the Butter Chicken Experiment, I think butter is a miracle food.  Unlike the disappointing and rubbery eggs of the past, "My Breakfast" eggs have consistently turned out beautiful and not burnt, which I attribute to cooking in ghee.

Step 5:  Garnish with avocado slices.  I use enough to virtually cover the entire surface of the eggs.

(Sorry, I started eating before I realized I needed to take a picture, but

at least now you can see that delicious yolk!)

I don't use any salt or pepper because the creaminess of the avocado, saltiness of the ham, and savoriness of the ghee are all the flavoring I need.  I enjoy this dish as much, if not more, than the toast and hash-browns I used to eat.  The protein of the eggs also provides a wonderful boost of energy in the morning (plus, y'know, the coffee).

One morning I was out of ham and had to "make do" with a side of bacon instead...

(Darn)

Mange!

Kimmy

UPDATE: Since writing this post we had an, "oh, duh" moment and realized we could freeze half our muffins to extend their life over the full week.  As soon as we finished the first half, the second half easily thawed overnight without affecting the flavor or consistency of the muffins.